


A Lesson in Messing with the Messed

by milliewrites



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23331211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milliewrites/pseuds/milliewrites
Summary: Neil finally snaps at Jack. **mention of Neil's past abuse**(Updated June 9, 2020)
Relationships: Matt Boyd & Neil Josten, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 11
Kudos: 273
Collections: All for the Game Fics





	A Lesson in Messing with the Messed

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely love sassy Neil so I decided to write one entirely dedicated to that. I wrote multiple different drafts so this is like a mixing pot of them all but I think it turned out ok, hope you enjoy!!

Matt should have seen it coming. Jack had been a problem since the minute he had stepped foot on the court and decided they were a waste of his time. He never shut up, constantly spewing insults and making rude comments about everyone but Kevin. He also seemed to be becoming more unforgiving with each passing day. 

That days practise had hit an all time high until it was stopped early before any of the original Foxes could strangle him for the unbelievably homophobic comment he had made to Nicky. In some ways Matt had seen it coming, but he had never expecting Neil to be the one to snap, and to snap so viciously. 

They were back in the locker room to change out of their sweaty clothes before leaving the stadium, the place was a mess of gear laying in pieces everywhere as their owners moved to and fro. Matt was sitting on one of the benches in front of his open locker sliding his gear off and onto the hooks, chatting with Neil who was putting away his things slow as he always did, waiting for his turn in the showers. 

"Andrew said he was willing to skip this Colombia this weekend by the way," Neil told him, pushing his sweat soaked headband off of his head.

"Perfect!" Matt said, "I talked to Simon yesterday and he said we could use the basement so it's officially happening." It was Dan's birthday Friday and Matt was throwing her a surprise birthday party. He had been worried about getting the basement, knowing the swim team wanted to celebrate the end of their season this weekend too but thankfully that wasn't until the day after Dan's birthday.

"Should I be bringing something?" Neil asked suddenly, a look of worry on his face. Neil had been with the Foxes for almost three full years now but still wasn't entirely comfortable with situations like this. He had never had the luxury of past experiences to teach him what to do in these situations and it made him worried.

"Just get Andrew to bring some booze and maybe bring a present if you can find something you think Dan would like, but no stress," Matt reassured him but by the look on Neil's face he was now stressing even more.

"A present!"

"Yeah Neil, but don't worry about it, Dan's not one to expect anything really. Just be at the party and she'll be happy," Matt said. Neil nodded slightly and turned back to his locker with a sigh, looking like he would very much like to climb in and forget everything for awhile. Matt knew Neil loved being Vice Captain, and he was undeniably good at it, but some days the team was even harder to handle than anyone could possibly imagine.

Matt stood up and clasped a hand on Neil's back.

"Cheer up, it'll be fun and none of the fresh man are invited," he told him with a grin and Neil shot him a thankful smile. The conversation lulled for a moment as Matt started digging around in his locker for his shower things.

A locker opened up a few doors down and Matt glanced up. Jack was watching Neil, a towel wrapped around his waist and a freshman named Parker beside him who looked terrified. He seemed to contemplate something for a moment then a wicked smile spread across his face. Matt knew in a second that he wasn't done being a jack ass for the day. 

With a smirk, Jack turned to Parker and said in a stage whisper, "I doubt the rumours are true. There's no way any of them are true if in the two years I've been here he's always been too scared to take off his shirt in front of his teammates." 

Matt instantly felt his blood boil. Neil had been through too much shit to have to put up with this idiot now. He wouldn't make a scene for Neil though, Neil had managed Jack quite well on his own these last few years with only one minor accident leaving Jack with a black eye. Instead he shifted his eyes to Neil, looking for a signal on how to react to this and planted himself firmly back on the bench. Neil didn't so much as look at Jack to show he had cared at all at what he had just said, he just kept putting things away in his locker his posture a little more rigid. Parker look relived that Neil hadn't taken the bait but Jack, clearly hated the lack of attention, opened his mouth and tried again.

"His tough guy comments must be fake too then, I bet the whole incident in his first year was just for Fox press."

Matt jumped as Neil slammed his locker door shut, apparently completely done with Jack's shit, and turned to face him. 

From where Matt was sitting he could get a good look at Neil and his blood practically went cold. Matt could sometime forget what Neil had been through, there time together had soften the edges of Neil's past until it sometimes got blurry, but in this moment Matt couldn't have forgotten if he tried. 

Neil's entire body was ridged. A straight line that started at his toes and ended at the top of his head, pulling him too full height. It shouldn't have been impressive, Neil didn't even come up to Jack's chin, but his demeanour made it look like he towered over everybody.

"Sorry what did you say," Neil said in a sickly sweet voice, venom dripped from every word. His expression hadn't harden, but a sweeping calm had washed away any betrayal of emotions from his face. The Butcher of Baltimore and Neil's years on the run slammed back into place in Matt's head. Jack blanched slightly at the sight but apparently had more back bone than Matt had though because he charged on.

"You heard me," Jack said.

"Oh no I must have misheard because it seems you crossed another line that I didn't think even you were dumb enough to cross," Neil said and tilted his head to the side, watching Jack like a predator watches its next meal. When all Jack did was swallow, Neil continued.

"Here's the thing I though you said something about my scars and me being afraid of you, which just is so wrong even an idiot like you wouldn't have said it. You clearly have been following me in the press and you still thought it was appropriate to say that, hmm," Neil tsked and took a step forward. 

Parker, having some snese of self preservation, darted to the side. Matt watched him for a moment as he grabbed his things off the bench and dash through the door and out of the locker room. When he looked back Neil hadn't even so much as twitched and eye, watching Jack with unwavering focus.

"Why the actual fuck would I be afraid of you? I've known dangerous people and you, you aren't one."

Then Neil started to take off his jersey and his arm bands and Matt's felt his jaw dropped. He had seen Neil tear reporters to shreds with a few well placed words but Matt hadn't seen him this vicious, or this mad, since Riko. Then all the thoughts in Matt's head disappeared from sight when he caught sight of Neil's chest for the first time. 

Since meeting Neil, he had seen bits of Neil's scars over their time together, but never had he ever seen all of them and most definitely never all at once. On Neil's chest scars twisted this way and that leaving while lines on Neil's athletic body. They crossed paths, ran parallel to each other, and some even were layered on top of each other like his skin was clay and someone had been playing in it. Knife scares were apparent as well as a bullet on his shoulder and what looked like the stretched outline of an iron on the other. Matt understood at once why Neil kept them covered.

Neil was still for a moment, watching Jack's face as he studied the scars and started to list them out.

"An iron burn for not sitting still enough when the FBI tried to put my dad in jail, again. I wasn't even ten. A bullet hole from I can't even fucking remember now because we had to run through three more cities and an entire fucking new country before we could rest long enough for my mom to patch me up in some dingy motel. These are from the Christmas when I spent it rooming with Riko, he liked to handcuff me to the bed and tear my skin open with knives when he wasn't beating me unconscious." Neil held out his unexposed arms and continued, "and these are from when my dad's people caught me right after his release almost two years ago. They drove me four hours to my childhood with my arms handcuffed around the back of the seat while that bitch Lola attacked me with a dashboard lighter and her knives. And that was before my dad nearly killed me in our basement, he would have succeeded too if my mob uncle hadn't shown up and shot him dead. But yeah sure I inflicted these scars on myself for publicity."

Matt though he heard someone squeak, but it could have just been him. These were the details he hadn't known about and they made his stomach churn.

"I had almost died more time at the hands of my own fucking father and his people by the age of ten than the amount of time you'll have near death experiences in your life. I've been beaten, cut, shot, stabbed, nearly drowned, thrown from moving cars, burned and maimed for so long that I'm not even sure where I got some of these, and you think I'm scared? No Jack, because when your parents were collectively a part of three different mafias and you get caught in the cross fires then some how miraculous make it out alive, a snot nosed bully who thinks he's better than everyone isn't very intimidating."

Neil staked forward suddenly and grabbed Jack by a handful fo hair then pulled him down until they were face to face. 

"Get it through your thick skull that I'm not someone to mess with and listen closely to what I say next," his voice dropped to a deadly purr, "get you ass in line and stop speaking shit about my family or you'll get what you deserve, got it?"

Jack paled but the kid was apparently suicidal because he opened his mouth again.

"Are you threatening me?" he asked, his voice shacking slightly. Neil smiled then, that cold smile that lacked any trace of joy and instead screamed don't fuck with me.

"Threatening you?" Neil mocked and laughed with no warmth. Releasing Jack he crossed his arms over his chest, smile still stuck in place and his eyes fixed on Jack. "Threatening you would mean you posed a threat to me and if that was the case the mafia would have you dead and buried someplace nobody would find you before I could even lift a finger. No, you don't threaten me at all, you're just dead weight for this team because you think you're better than everybody else. This isn't a threat, this is a lesson so you can finally understand who the fuck you're dealing with. Try something like today again and were gonna have a problem, understood?"

He patted Jack on the chest, hard, as he walked off. The room was quiet enough to hear the sound of Neil's characteristically soft footsteps make their way to the showers. Andrew was the only one to to move, following Neil to the showers, his face as apathetic as always.

The second they were out of sight Jack's legs turned to jelly and Matt watched him sink down on to the floor.

"Aren't you gonna say something," he asked Matt when he saw him staring.

"Why should I," he said, "Neil covered it all." 

He turned back to his locker to finish collecting his things as the room slowly unfroze.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Suggestions are much appreciated! Have a nice day :)


End file.
